FROM INGRID SLETTEN: GOD IS NEAR. GOD IS WITH US.

Conversations about God, with another person trained in such conversations, is called spiritual direction. Spiritual direction is an ancient Christian tradition that survives and thrives today; it is a form of prayer we offer each other in the Christian community. Prayer is a balm to many of us and so adding a new form of prayer has often appealed to people of faith.

But we can look at conversations with God from a deeper place: at baptism, or during an adult conversion, our most important relationship becomes the one we have with God. We repeatedly say in our baptismal covenant, “I will, with God’s help.” This seems significant, heavy even. So, how do we do this; how do we live up to our vow to ask for God’s help? We are committed, yet this seems daunting. It looks mysterious and complex even when we are clear about our faith at conversion.

I think there is hope; could we be better at asking for help from God if we cultivate the relationship and seek out conversations with God? On the one hand, this is a tall order. “Me, talking with God?” you might be saying. Yet it is down-to-earth, present, everyday questions that bring us closer to God. Our relationship with God is like all relationships; they begin with common yet intimate places of connection and intersection. In fact, we can ask these everyday questions in spiritual direction and open the door to conversations with God. Our seemingly difficult questions of how to know about God, to discern what God wants for us, and to feel God’s love for us, become suddenly so simple, so sacred, before our eyes. To get practical, what might these everyday questions that start conversations about God look like? Here are a few offered for reflection:

My prayer life is dull. Am I doing it wrong?

I sense that my cat is a perfect being created by God. How do I celebrate and acknowledge that? Are my senses just mine about my cat, or are they connected to God?

What is God's blessing? What is happening? Can I ask for it anytime?

I’m nearing retirement. How do I look deeply into what God has for me? I want to be more than just financially secure.

I experienced difficulty with my father in my twenties. I was disrespectful to him and did not appreciate him. Can I make amends? Can I love him today? How do I ask God for the help to do this?

My faith is growing, and I am thinking about how to deepen it to become closer to God. I come to church every Sunday, and I help in the parish. But is there more that I could do? I don’t want to be just busy; I want to connect with God in this activity.

I want to listen to God, but I'm unsure I’m doing that. How do I know?

I sense holiness when I am outside walking my dog. Is this normal? Can this be God around me, or is it just my imagination?

I sense God when I am gardening. Is this God reaching out to me, or is it just something about me?

You may have your own examples. They are all valid. In the end, God meets us where we are. God is near. God is with us. Spiritual direction, through human conversations, is a doorway into deepening our awareness, understanding, and nourishment of and from God through our everyday relationship with God. — Ingrid Sletten

Ingrid is a member of Saint Mary’s and a trained and certified spiritual director. This month, she completed an advanced program in spiritual direction at Fordham University. We praise God for her faithful witness. Father Sammy has asked Ingrid to provide a spiritual-direction ministry for our community by placing parish members in direction with suitable directors and teaching members of the community about direction as an adult-formation program. While these services will unfold in detail in the coming months, we offer this message today from Ingrid about spiritual direction in recognition of her course completion. We continue to ask God to bless her and our parish as the ministry of spiritual direction evolves in this place. If you are interested after reading Ingrid’s article, please contact her at this email.

PRAYING FOR THE CHURCH & FOR THE WORLD

We pray for an end to war and violence, especially in the Middle East and in Ukraine and Russia. We pray for justice and for an end to violence, hatred, discord, and division in our neighborhood, city, and nation.

We pray for those who have asked us for our prayers, especially Margaret, Patrick, Cedric, Elena, Otis, David, Joseph, Mario, Vincenzo, Dorothy, Carmen, Justin, Mary, Sheila, Steve, Leroy, Rick, Thomas, Charles, Lynn, Dennis, Susan, Darwin, Martin, Frank, Susanna, Rolf, Joyce, Christine, Donald, Richard, Josh, Robert, Tony, James, Dorian, Maddie, Hattie, Nettie, Chrissy, Jan, Pat, Marjorie, Carole, Luis, Sharon, Quincy, June, Carlos,  José, Brian, Manuel, Carmen, Bobby, Jean, Abe, Suzanne, Hardy, Giovanna, Gypsy, Bob, and Liduvina; and Monica Clare, Laura Katharine, James, Curtis, Barbara-Jean and Eleanor-Francis, religious; Lind, deacon; Julie, Robby, Matthew, and Stephen, priests; and Sean, bishop.

We pray for those whose year’s mind is on August 25: Albert Gardner (1892); Harriet Amelia Hopkins (1921); Anna Marguerite Della Rocca (1964); Elvira Herg Oxx (1971); Arthur Atkinson III (1983); Eliphal Streeter (1990).

A NEW HISTORY OF SAINT MARY’S

We are thrilled to share good news that the updated history of our parish—The Church of St. Mary the Virgin, a History, by the Rev. Warren C. Platt—is hot off the press!

We plan to begin selling copies this Sunday at Coffee Hour. For those who have pre-ordered a copy, we expect to begin shipping in September. Here’s how to get a copy:

1. Purchase a copy at Coffee Hour after Solemn Mass starting this week

2. Order a copy by emailing Ms. Mary Robison at m.robison3@gmail.com

Each copy is $30, shipping and handling included. To pay, please use our online giving portal or send a check to Saint Mary's made payable to the “Society of the Free Church of St. Mary the Virgin.” Either on the portal or your check, please note in the memo line “Church History.”

When ordering a copy, please be sure to give Mary your street address for shipping. If you are local and you’d like to pick up your copy from the parish office or after Solemn Mass on Sunday, just let her know.

About the book . . . Until now, only one other book has been written on the history of the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, The Story of St. Mary’s by Newbury Frost Read, a member of the Board of Trustees. But this work, published in 1931, is largely devoted to administrative and financial matters.

In this new volume, The Church of St. Mary the Virgin, a History, the Rev. Warren C. Platt, author and church historian, provides an updated history of the parish, including biographies of the Rectors through Father Wells, plus an exploration of the parish’s liturgy and its social concerns in the 19th and 20th centuries.

About the author . . . The Rev. Warren C. Platt is a native New Yorker, his first forebears having arrived in Brooklyn in December, 1849. He holds degrees from Cornell University, Union Theological Seminary (M.Div), and Columbia University (MLS, Ph.D). Father Platt served as a public librarian at Brooklyn Public Library and the Research Libraries of the New York Public Library, where he was responsible for collection development in the area of religion and cognate disciplines, and where he wrote and edited the research guides describing the Library's collections.

Father Platt serves as an assisting priest at the Church of the Transfiguration, where he celebrates Mass as well as giving sermons and lectures. He has been published in various academic journals, principally in the areas of church history and library science, and his current area of interest is the history of the rise of ritualism in nineteenth-century Episcopalianism. 

COMING UP

Blessing the Backpacks

At the end of Mass on Sunday, September 1, we will bless a large number of backpacks and some school supplies. They will be delivered the following day to the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School across the street on Forty-Sixth Street. If you are a student or if there is a student in your family, you are invited to participate by bringing up your “stuff”—backpack, school supplies, laptop, textbook, etc.—for a blessing as well.

All Sundays in September at 9:45 AM
Bible Study in Saint Benedict’s Study
Talking about Jesus: Who He Is and Why it Matters

Sunday, October 6, Blessing of the Animals
Sunday afternoon. Forty-sixth Street, in front of the church. Time to be announced.

Sunday, October 6, Evensong & Benediction, 4:00 PM
Note the new time!

Sunday, October 13, Virtual Coffee Hour
After Solemn Mass, via Zoom. Link to be provided.

Sunday, October 20, Newcomers Reception
After Solemn Mass and a bit of Coffee Hour.
In the Rectory. Refreshments will be served.

NEWS & NOTICES

Bible Study on Sunday in September . . . 9:45 AM in Saint Benedict’s Study, led by Father Jay Smith. Refreshments provided. Please join us as we look at Gospel passages that show us who Jesus is and invite us to consider how that experience might change our lives. We’ll use works of imagination—art and poetry—to help us interpret the Gospel text. All are welcome.

At Coffee Hour this Week . . . Things for Sale, Things Given Away—After Mass on Sunday, look for tables in Saint Joseph’s Hall where we’ll be selling Saint Mary’s mugs as well as some copies of Father Warren Platt’s The Church of St. Mary the Virgin, a History (see above for more details). There will also be a give-away table with a wide variety of books on it, free for the taking. Please take one! Take more than one! Otherwise, we will need to recycle them. Give these books a home!

From Father Sammy: Nine Days of Prayer for Guidance before Holy Cross Day (September 14) . . . In the Western Church, a novena (from the Latin novem, “nine”) is a period of nine days’ private or public devotion, by which it is hoped to obtain some special grace. The general observance of novenas is actually quite modern, dating only from the seventeenth century, but it is modeled on the nine days’ preparation of the Apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary for the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 1.13ff). Some sources cite the Church Fathers for assigning special meaning to the number nine, seeing it as symbolic of imperfect man turning to God in prayer (due to its proximity with the number ten, symbolic of God’s perfection). Novenas may be performed in church, at home, or anywhere solemn prayers are appropriate. This year, Saint Mary’s is using the days before Holy Cross Day as an occasion to pray together as a community for God’s vision for our parish. Beginning September 6, and culminating on September 14, Holy Cross Day, I am asking our whole parish family to join me in adding to your daily devotions a particular prayer for Saint Mary’s.

A Novena for Saint Mary’s

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Jesus, who because of your burning love for us willed to be crucified and to shed your most precious blood for the redemption and salvation of our souls, look down upon us and grant our petition:

Pour out your Spirit upon our parish family.

Give us your vision for our common life and bless the work we do in New York City in your name and for your glory.

We trust completely in your mercy. Cleanse us from sin by your grace, sanctify our work, give us and all those who are dear to us our daily bread, lighten the burden of our sufferings, bless our parish, and grant to the nations your peace, which is the only true peace, so that by obeying your commandments we may come at last to the glory of heaven. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Our Father . . .

Glory to the Father . . .

Neighbors in Need . . . If you would like to volunteer or make a cash donation, please speak to MaryJane Boland. We are also eager to receive donations of new or lightly used sneakers and shoes, in all sizes, for both men and women. A Drop-by was held on August 16, and the next one will take place on Friday, September 20, 1:00–3:00 PM. We are looking for a few more good volunteers. Please speak to MaryJane Boland or Father Jay about our work and how you might help.

Helping those in Need: We’re all in this together . . . When you encounter someone in need on the subway or on the street, do you wonder how you might help? One thing you might consider doing is printing out this Street Sheet and carrying a few copies with you (click for the file in English and Spanish). The Sheet lists resources for the hungry, the unsheltered, and those in need. Sometimes this is one thing you can do to help: direct a person in need to available resources. You can’t promise people that negotiating these services will be easy, but it is something concrete that you can do.

The Members of the Board of Trustees of Saint Mary’s will gather for a retreat on Saturday, September 7. Please keep them, their work, and the life and ministry of Saint Mary’s in your prayers.

Monthly Requiem Masses . . . In the month of September, the Feast of Saint Matthew falls on the third Saturday and Holy Cross Day on the second. Therefore, the September parish requiem will be on Saturday, September 7, at 12:10 PM. Click to learn more about the Guild of All Souls at Saint Mary’s or speak with Father Sammy. All are welcome!

Would you like to donate the altar flowers? . . . The following Sundays are available: September 1, 8, 15, and 22. The customary donation requested is $250. Please call the Parish Office for more information (212-869-5830).

WOULD YOU LIKE TO VOLUNTEER?

Have you been coming to Saint Mary’s for a while, but have been unsure about how to get more involved? We’d love to talk to you about that.

During 2024–2025 we hope to recruit more volunteers for the following ministries:

• Neighbors in Need, Acolytes, Readers, Ushers, Hospitality Teams, and Livestream Broadcasters.

In order to do what we do for this congregation and for our neighborhood, we need your help. We urge you to pray about this, asking God to help you discern how you are being called to serve here at the parish. We promise you that greater commitment produces great rewards.

For more information, speak to Father Sammy or Father Matt.

ABOUT THE MUSIC AT THE SOLEMN MASS ON SUNDAY, AUGUST 25
THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Sunday’s organ voluntaries conclude a series, begun four weeks ago, of the eight “Little” Preludes and Fugues, traditionally attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). These pieces are now widely believed to have been composed by one of his pupils, possibly Johann Tobias Krebs (1690–1762), or his son Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713–1780). Of these eight preludes and fugues, four are in major keys of C, F, G and B-flat, and the remaining four are in their relative minors of A, D, E, and G. The standard ordering of these eight pieces begins with BWV 553 in C Major and progresses up the scale to BWV 560 in B-flat. This week’s prelude will be BWV 558 in G minor, and the postlude will be BWV 560 in the relative major key of B-flat. BWV 558, for the prelude, begins with a clear harmonic plan, almost suggestive of a chaconne, simply and directly stated. Its accompanying fugue has a charmingly delicate quality. BWV 560, the last of the collection and played for the postlude, is probably the most extraverted of the eight preludes and fugues. Its prelude includes a distinctive pedal solo, and its fugue is angular and emphatic.

The Hymnal 1940 Companion contains the following entry under the heading “Fourth Communion Service.”

The various portions of this service are plainsongs which have long been associated the Feasts of the B.V.M. The present adaptation to the American liturgy was made by Winfred Douglas for the use of the Community of St. Mary, and published in 1915 under the title Missa Marialis.

Canon Charles Winfred Douglas (1867–1944) was a giant in the history of music in the Episcopal Church. A priest and member of the Committee which produced the 1916 edition of the Episcopal Hymnal, he was the principal editor and driving force behind The Hymnal 1940 which, for decades was the indisputable benchmark for American hymnals. Composer, author, musicologist, editor, historian, liturgiologist, theologian, linguist, poet, teacher (in no particular order) are some of the well-deserved attributions accorded him. Missa Marialis is an enduring example of Canon Douglas’ zeal for merging medieval plainsong with English Prayer Book texts. Its components under the heading “Fourth Communion Service” in The Hymnal 1940 were Kyrie (Mass IX), Gloria (Mass X), Sanctus (Mass IX), and Agnus Dei (Mass IX). Also included were Canon Douglas’ rendering of Credo I (which we customarily sing at Saint Mary’s during Lent) and the traditional Lord’s Prayer setting which is sung weekly at Saint Mary’s. All of these settings, edited by Douglas, were retained in The Hymnal 1982. During Sunday’s Solemn Mass, we will sing Gloria, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei.

During the administration of Communion on Sunday morning, mezzo-soprano, Kirsten Ott, will sing Hear my prayer, O Lord by Antonín Dvořák (1841–1901). In March 1894, while Dvořák was living in New York City, he composed a cycle of ten Biblical Songs, Opus 99, of which Hear my prayer, O Lord is the sixth, with text derived from Psalm 63. These ten songs, all with texts taken from the Psalter, were first published in 1895, in Czech with English and German translations. Scored originally quite simply for piano and voice, Dvořák orchestrated only the first five of the songs in a manuscript which was published posthumously in 1914. These Biblical Songs are notable for their simplicity of means and effectiveness of expression. They are often performed as a cycle or in select groupings as well as being offered liturgically.

Kirsten Ott, mezzo-soprano, has been a member of the Choir of Saint Mary’s since the fall of 2021. She sings frequently with Libero Canto, an organization which stages both opera and song programs, and she has also produced several of her own recital programs. She has previously sung with local groups such as Vox Vocal Ensemble and the Manhattan Chamber Choir. Before joining the choir at Saint Mary’s, she had sung for many seasons in the choirs of the Church of the Holy Apostles, Chelsea, and the Church of the Epiphany, Yorkville. Kirsten has extensive acting training and has coached both classical and musical theater performers. She studied oboe at Manhattan School of Music and is also a pianist.

NOT A BOOK CLUB, BUT A BOOK

Father Jay has started to read James McBride’s much-praised book, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Story, and is liking it. He thinks it would be interesting—and fun—to talk about it with a group of Saint Marians. You can read about the book here. Father Jay is looking for at least 5 folks interested in getting together on some Friday night this fall, after Evening Prayer, to talk about the book. Pizza, beer, and soda provided. Let him know if you’re interested.

AWAY FROM SAINT MARY’S

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue & 82nd Street

Folio from a Qur'an Manuscript
Calligrapher Ahmad ibn al-Suhrawardi al-Bakri
Illuminator Muhammad ibn Aibak ibn 'Abdallah
Dated 707 AH/1307–8 CE
Now on view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 455

During the Ilkhanid period, a series of magnificent, large‑scale Qur'an manuscripts were produced. While few can be directly linked to royal patronage, the size and quality of their paper, along with their splendid calligraphy and illumination, suggest they were produced for members of the Ilkhanid court. This folio from the "Anonymous Baghdad Qur'an" (so called due to its unknown patron) provides not only its date and place of production, but also the name of its masterful calligrapher and illuminator.

Renaissance Masterpieces of Judaica: The Mishneh Torah and The Rothschild Mahzor
March 16, 2023–Ongoing
Now on view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 503

The Jewish communities of northern Italy were active participants in the extraordinary flourishing of arts and culture that define the Renaissance. This installation of two rare and sumptuous Hebrew manuscripts explores the fascinating cross-cultural interaction between those Jewish communities and their Christian and humanist surroundings in the fifteenth century. A Jewish scribe and Christian artist working in tandem produced these monumental works of art that bear witness to the prosperity, power, and discernment of the Jewish patrons who commissioned them.

This installation pairs two of the finest Hebrew illuminated manuscripts from the Italian Renaissance. The Misneh Torah of Maimonides, a landmark of Jewish jurisprudence, returns to The Met after a five-year sojourn at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The Rothschild Mahzor, a luxury prayer book, is on special loan from the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary. Last shown to the public in the 1990s, this great treasure painted by multiple artists working in Florence offers page after page of exquisite decoration.

The pages of the manuscripts will be turned every 3 months to allow visitors to take in their cumulative majesty.

We need your help to keep holding our services. Click below, where you can make one-time or recurring donations to support Saint Mary’s. We are very grateful to all those who make such donations and continue to support Saint Mary’s so generously.

Saint Mary’s is a vibrant Anglo-Catholic witness in the heart of NYC. With our identity in Christ and a preference for the poor, we are an inclusive, diverse community called to love God and each other for the life of the world.

This edition of The Angelus was written and edited by Father Jay Smith, except as noted. Father Matt Jacobson also edits the newsletter and is responsible for formatting and posting it on the parish website and distributing it via mail and e-mail, with the assistance of Christopher Howatt, parish administrator, and parish volunteer, Clint Best.